Liao 'Bacchus' Jun vs. Vanessa York - Another Shot

It had been going so well. Vanessa had launched her best blow, the Gazelle Punch. She had a clear shot at it, clear enough that it wouldn’t matter what Bacchus did. The best she could hope for was to try and block it, but even if she did, she wouldn’t, really. The blow had enough force to shatter all but the best blocks and still deliver some incredible force. She was hitting the mat, there was no way around it.

She could tell that Bacchus was making an attempt to twist away, trying to avoid it, but it wouldn’t matter. She’d land this hit and then-

Darkness.

When the lights came back on, Vanessa found herself staring up at the ceiling, blinking, as a referee - not the that had officiated their match - flashed a light in her eye. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her head and feeling something wet on her gloves. Blood? Yeah, she pulled her hand away and sure enough, that was blood, coming out of the side of her temple. Judging by the small pool at her size, it had been there a while, too.

But, as distressing as that it, it wasn’t nearly as much so as what she heard next. ”Ladies and gentleman, we have a double knockout!” The announcer confirmed, gaining a round of boos. ”This match is officially a draw!”

”What?” Vanessa rolled over and started to push her way up, only to fall back down to her knees. Where was Bacchus? ”That...no...how?”

Like Vanessa, Bacchus was awoken by a blinding light from a flashlight held over her eyes. Her lids fluttered open briefly, but squinted shut quickly while she turned her head away and brought a hand up to shield her eyes.

“Ugh, fuck off…” she groaned quietly. This wasn’t the first time she’d woken up like this, though the other instances all involved a night of wild partying and way too much alcohol, even for her. The strongest similarity here was the ungodly pain in her head, which was only made worse by a seemingly constant throbbing that didn’t feel like it was going to be stopping anytime soon. In fact, that similarity was so strong it took her a moment to remember she was in the ring for a match and not at a bar or some friend’s place.

With another groan she started to try to push herself up, curious what the status of the match was. But before Bacchus could get anywhere, she froze when a voice came over the speakers to announce the draw. At first it surprised her. “A double KO? How…?” And then she remembered. Bacchus had been throwing her deadly spinning heel kick, and then suddenly her lights had gone out. She wasn’t quite sure how, but it seemed Vanessa had snuck in a good shot of her own at the same time. Then as if to confirm her suspicion a replay was shown up on the titantron. Bacchus turned her head to watch…

“Ha...haha…Hahahaha!!!!” A small chuckle quickly turned into a full laugh while she laid there. How could she not? What were even the odds of something like this happening?

“Holy shit, this is too damn wild…” She said through another chuckle before finally pushing herself up into a sitting position. That arm stayed there to prop her up, while the other rested over the knee of a leg she pulled in, leaving the other one stretched out. She looked at Vanessa, a grin pulling at her lips even despite the result. The fight had been a hell of a blast, but she knew things weren’t quite over between them. It couldn’t be. And she felt certain Vanessa felt the same way.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow when she heard the laughing, then finally centered in Bacchus' position, finding the woman not too far away. Sure enough, she was coming back to her senses, too, and it might’ve just been the delirium talking, but she suspected it was more than that. Bacchus was wild, crazy, the most insane woman she’d ever come across. She was laughing because that was her nature. Because she’d just had the time of her life.

And if Vanessa was honest, she had, too. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed a match so much, left it feeling so satisfied. She was alive, electrified, on fire, and it didn't matter that her head was pounding and her body felt like a mishmash of breaking bones. This was the kind of fight she needed.

But she wanted more. She wanted to win.

So, when Bacchus looked over, there wasn’t a need to say much of anything. She stayed there, on her knees, breathing heavy through a gaping mouth. After a moment, she shut it tight and nodded, then inhaled deep. They were thinking the same thing, but there wouldn’t be any harm in vocalizing it.

”Rematch?”

The grin Bacchus wore spread wide as Vanessa vocalized the word that was on both of their minds, as if to confirm they were in fact thinking the same thing. She couldn’t blame the redhead. Bacchus didn’t exactly think the same way most people did. Her mind could’ve very easily been somewhere else entirely at that moment.

But no, she was right on target. But rather than immediately answer, Bacchus gestured to the ref to grab her gourd out of the corner she had left it in. The handful of seconds it took gave Bacchus a chance to catch her breath a bit. Once it was brought to her, she popped the cork out and held it up.

“Rematch.”

Then she brought the gourd to her lips and took a couple swallows of the strong Baiju within. Bacchus put the cork back in, then rolled the gourd to Vanessa, expecting her to drink from it too, as if it were part of some ceremony more sacred and binding than any contract signing.

Vanessa didn’t hate Bacchus. Couldn’t be further from it. While she’d come into this match with some edge, that had mostly devolved by the time she was getting her face sat on and was attempting to work her off through her pants. She was her kind of woman - rowdy, crazy, untamed. Maybe she had a little Irish in that Chinese blood, yearning to get out? She definitely wouldn’t have been out of place in any pub Vanessa had ever been too.

She didn’t want to beat this woman out of malice. But she did want to beat this woman. She couldn’t explain why, not exactly, but it was this primal need. It just had to happen, and she didn’t care how, and she didn’t care when.

Those were details they could work out later. For now, though, they needed to seal the deal, and she had to admit, Bacchus had the perfect idea on how to do that.

Vanessa sat on her backside, picked up the gourd, and popped it open. She gave it a quick sniff, just to be sure - she’d smelled better, she’d smelled worse - then took a hot second to run her tongue along the rim, getting a nice taste of the lips that had just been on it and making sure Bacchus saw, keen on the reaction.

With that little bit of theatre out of the way, she got to business and placed the gourd full on her lips, tilting up and drinking deep. One. Two. Three gulps before she pulled it away and tossed it back to her former and future opponent. ”Good shit.” She rubbed off the residue on her forearm, then nodded back Bacchus’ way. ”Bring more next time. Gonna drink it while I sit on your face.”

Vanessa had a low chuckle, then rolled out of the ring and started the slow, painful limp up the ramp. As eager as she was to take on Bacchus again, she’d need some recovery time before then. A week, minimum. The next time they met, she wanted to come at this woman full throttle.